Solomon Islands have a lot of amazing stories.
I mean in the nine provinces there are different areas,
different languages and we just want to
get those stories out, whether it's us doing it or
providing that platform for all the other film makers
or storytellers, to make use of it
in getting our stories out into the world.
We believe like one day it's gonna reach Hollywood.
Hi, my name is Regina
and I'm Jo Jo
and we are film makers from the Western
and Malaita Province in the Solomon Islands.
The best thing about being twins is we do
everything together, it's like having a
best friend with you the whole time.
When it comes to film making we get to have
a 24/7 staff meeting.
My favorite part is directing the artist, I'd say,
because, for myself, I think growing up
I always wanted to be an actor more than a film maker
but then it changed a bit and then I found out that
I love them both because they are
pretty much the same thing.
You can't get a movie if you can't have actors
and you can't have actors unless you have a director.
We just love the whole film process
and just being in front of the camera,
at the back of the camera.
Native Lens Film Festival will be the first of its kind
here in Solomon Islands and it will be here
in Honiara in October.
It's more of a platform where story tellers
get to film something and screen their stories,
indigenous stories.
So Native Lens Film Fest hopes to bring that platform
and just to get all submissions, like from the
nine provinces in Solomon Islands
because that's one of the big challenges,
there's no place for them to show their work.
I worked with the Queensland Art Gallery of
Modern Arts, QAGOMA, in Brisbane, Australia.
Reggie was not available so I went
and we started off with the shooting in Bougainville.
The women creating their homemade
baskets, bilums and carvings, pottery and all that.
Also I get to edit that in Australia with the
cinematic team of the Gallery.
To have my work screened and exhibited
in the Gallery is massive.
It was a huge boost for me in film making
and once again when I came back I shared with Regina
all that I learned from that project.
In 2015 I had an experience of a lifetime
starring in Blackbird.
It was shot in Mackay, Queensland, Australia.
Amie, the director of Blackbird, is just amazing
to work with, she's also from Solomon Islands
and we share the same passion of telling
Solomon Islands stories through film.
It was very emotional for me,
the tears I've had on the scenes in the movie,
Blackbird, they're just so real.
It's really exciting you know, to know that
I've won an award for the performance.
The film industry here is in its infancy stage.
There's not much support for creative industry
as a whole, let alone film making.
A lot of our film makers who just self taught,
they learn to make films, they learn to edit videos,
just by going on YouTube.
One of the main goals is that because we
go through this hardship, we don't want anyone
behind us to go through this hardship also.
We're gonna give it all we've got.
Trail blaze into it, even if we're broke
we're broke, we're really broke
and we just have to just go with it, so that I know
that there's a child somewhere right now, who is
3 years old, probably by the time she's 21 she'll
get her film out there, or he will get his film out there.
It's just an infant stage, but one day
our film makers from Solomon Islands
going to get our stories right across the ocean.